By Emily Hecht-McGowan, Director of  Public Policy Thirty years ago this year, Family Equality Council endeavored to make life a little bit better for LGBT parents and their kids by providing a space for families to connect and share their lives with each other. We never could have imagined where we’d be 30 years later. [...]

Celebrate. Commit. Connect. Those are the New Year’s resolutions for the Family Equality Council and I hope, in 2012, they will be yours. This year, we will mark the 30th anniversary of our organization. Over the past 30 years we have worked tirelessly to strengthen our families by building our community to support parents and [...]

This is a shining example of the world as it should be. Watch as these two dads experience the joy that every family feels, no matter who they are or who they love. One year has passed. Take a look what love created:

Jennifer Chrisler, Family Equality Council’s Executive Director, asked last week if I would like to attend an event with her at a local Jewish temple in which she was giving the D’var Torah (a talk on topics relating to a section of the Torah, typically the weekly Torah portion) during Shabbat services.  Jenn was approached [...]

Today Family Equality Council adds our voice to those around the globe honoring World AIDS Day by lending our support to the millions of families impacted by HIV/AIDS.  On November 8, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton introduced a new federal plan for HIV prevention, calling for the creation of an “AIDS-free generation.”  But at the [...]

The following blog was written by Brent Almond of the Designer Daddy blog. I was speaking at an adoption expo recently as a panelist on the topic “Are You Ready To Adopt?” In sharing our story, I referenced our family album a few times, as it was such a big part of our home study [...]

The following blog was provided by the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Domestic and international sources of law recognize the right to family, including the right to rear children. Similarly, the reproductive justice (RJ) frameworkstands for the idea that all individuals have the right to have children, not to have children, and to parent the [...]

As a mother, I am grateful every day for the blessing of my family and committed to ensuring that my children are happy, health, loved and cared for.  This week, as I prepare to celebrate this time of thanksgiving, my heart goes out to children who have a very different existence than that of my [...]

The following blog was written for Mombian by LGBT blogger/writer Dana Rudolph I’ve written a lot about adoption lately—some great new resources have just come out, including a book looking at recent research on adoption by lesbians and gay men, edited by David Brodzinsky and Adam Pertman of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, and a [...]

The following blog is by Joey Guerra from the Houston Chronicle blog. Every time Emerson smiles, I tear up. Not necessarily a full-on cry (though that’s been known to happen a few times). More like a mist, a dew, a glaze of watery happiness. He has a fantastic smile that bursts from his cheeks, carves out his [...]

The following blog is reprinted from the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) blog. The Every Child Deserves a Family Act (S. 1770) was the topic of a Congressional briefing today organized by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) office. Advocates from LGBT and Adoption organizations engaged in a panel discussion about the bill and its promise of expanding [...]

The following post was written for the Cardozo Journal of Law and Gender blog by Heron Greenesmith, legislative counsel at the Family Equality Council. Until September of 2010, the State of Florida banned lesbian, gay, and bisexual parents from adopting their children. To be precise, Florida law prohibited an otherwise eligible person from adopting if [...]

The following blog post is by Paul Perry, who joined COLAGE’s board of directors in 2010 and is pursuing his doctorate in Educational Leadership at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.  In honor of National Adoption Month, he shares his story as an adopted COLAGEr. I took home a word. “Faggot.” At 5 years old, I [...]

The following blog is by Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and Author of “Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming Our Families – and America” News flash: Today, in every state in America, gay fathers and lesbian mothers are raising children. For a range of reasons, not everyone [...]

On Sunday, November 20, Family Equality Council joins with our partners in commemorating The Transgender Day of Remembrance and will take time to remember those in our community who have lost their lives to violence. As we reflect on the many strides the LGBT community has made in recent months, we also are faced with [...]

The following blog was written in honor of National Adoption Month by Diane Tomaz, a Child Services Coordinator at the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange and an adoptive parent of two boys. National Adoption Month is not on my five year old son’s radar, but he was very excited to have his two moms visit his kindergarten [...]

The following post is written by Bill Lorenz,  Family Equality Council Director of Finance and Administration, and is presented as part of our month-long focus on adoption and the Every Child Deserves a Family Act. After years of wanting, months of planning and even more months of waiting, the dream of creating a family is [...]

November is National Adoption Month, a time set aside each year by child welfare and family advocacy groups to raise awareness about the plight of the more than 404,000 children living in foster care. This year, we have reason to believe that the message is getting out. From the President to Congress to the media, [...]

As the Affordable Care Act becomes law over the next few years, we here at Family Equality will continue to submit comments to ensure that health care reform includes all families, including LGBT-headed families.  Below are the comments we submitted today on preventing discrimination.  Click here to read other comments and submit your own. October 31, 2011 [...]

Yesterday, Brent Wright, our Director of Programs, testified in front of the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Education in favor of H.3584.  This bill would strengthen the current safe schools law by adding a list of enumerated characteristics on the basis of which bullying is not permitted.  Included in that list is “associational language” that protects the [...]